2012 Sub-3:00 Marathon Goal Thread (Read 6875 times)

Last Wednesday things blew up for me and my calf went KABOOOM! and it hurt to run down hill. Took a day off and eased back into things but I still don't trust it enough to handle the hills. We're not talking tweaking sore here, but PAIN.

Body and legs seem to be coming back together but I've still got some tenderness going downhill so I'm not got risk blowing things completely apart.

Live to fight another day....

Go ahead and transfer me to the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte, NC (11.17) with the same 2:55 goal.

I ran a 1:27:06 half yesterday, pacing for 1:25. So, not a good sign for a 2:55 Boston attempt. But I was already thinking more like 2:57 for Boston. Thing is, there was a ton of wind at the half; I think I ran about a 1:25 effort. Last year I ran 2:58:41 at Boston off a 1:26:03 half at the same race, so I think I'm in the ballpark. Also I was injured for a few weeks after the half last year; this year I ought to get a few more quality weeks in before tapering. On the flipside, there was that monster tailwind at Boston last year.

Most likely, get some more time with ice, stretching, etc on it while slowly working back up the routes / daily miles that I had been logging. Worst part about all of this, I keep waiting on each run for any slight twinge to turn into the full on pain / locked up feeling that I happened about 10 days ago. It's going to be a while before I trust the legs again.

Got an appointment with Dr. 'Magic Hands' this week (ART) and he's usually pretty good about fixing me up.

Also I was injured for a few weeks after the half last year; this year I ought to get a few more quality weeks in before tapering. On the flipside, there was that monster tailwind at Boston last year.

More training + more Boston experience should equal a better time. Are you changing strategy at all for this year?

I didn't see him at Napa, but I also don't know what his real name is to check the results. My Napa run went as expected. I was pacing a friend for his first marathon. With all the downhill the first half, he was a little too aggressive and paid for it the last 8 miles. We came by the half in 1:40:30, which was a few minutes too fast. He slowed it down noticeably from 14-18 and he told me he had to stop because he couldn't fuel and run at the same time anymore. I was feeling fine, so I went ahead and picked up the pace. I ended up with a 3:17 with not too much damage. Now I'm going to try and get ready for a super slow 50k trail run in two weeks.

I'm actually glad I didn't train to run a PR pace for today. It got really warm the second half of the race, and reached the mid 70's for those finishing around 5 hours. I'm a wimp with heat, and I know I would have had trouble. Some of the top runners also complained the heat did them in the last 5 miles.

My Napa run went as expected. ... We came by the half in 1:20:30, which was a few minutes too fast. ... I was feeling fine, so I went ahead and picked up the pace. I ended up with a 3:17 with not too much damage.

I didn't see him at Napa, but I also don't know what his real name is to check the results. My Napa run went as expected. I was pacing a friend for his first marathon. With all the downhill the first half, he was a little too aggressive and paid for it the last 8 miles. We came by the half in 1:40:30, which was a few minutes too fast. He slowed it down noticeably from 14-18 and he told me he had to stop because he couldn't fuel and run at the same time anymore. I was feeling fine, so I went ahead and picked up the pace. I ended up with a 3:17 with not too much damage. Now I'm going to try and get ready for a super slow 50k trail run in two weeks.

I'm actually glad I didn't train to run a PR pace for today. It got really warm the second half of the race, and reached the mid 70's for those finishing around 5 hours. I'm a wimp with heat, and I know I would have had trouble. Some of the top runners also complained the heat did them in the last 5 miles.

George didn't run Napa this past weekend - some injury niggles, nothing serious he'll be back out there.

Brian, this past weekend wasn't a great weather one for distance running in northern California. I ran the NorCal 10 up in Redding on Saturday and it was too warm as well. I know Sunday was even warmer, would have slowed me a lot to have run Napa in that 'heat' so props to your friend - tell him it'll get better on a better weather day.. On Saturday the temps were only in the mid to upper 60's but, after you've been training in 40's-50's all winter even 68 feels hot. For other than running it was the most beautiful spring weekend - we camped two days up at Whiskeytown Lake and did some hiking and mountain biking as well. Redding's a really nice town in the spring if you ever feel the need to do a competitive 10miler in early March - Norcal's the place.

Right now, it's looking like I might not even run any marathon this year.﻿ Good training to all the sub 3'ers on the thread.

Did a 20 mile race yesterday. Treated it as a long marathon pace run and kept with the 7:00 min/mile pace group for 15 miles, then picked it up a little over the last 5 miles where I averaged roughly 6:40 pace. Felt pretty good throughout, good confidence builder for my sub3 attempt in 6 weeks time.

Wouldn't mind a bit of that Californian sun over here in the cold UK...

DoppleBock

posted: 3/6/2012 at 9:45 AM

Damn that sucks - I have not been able to run much faster than 7:30 pace without my hamstring barking since October. So I am just running a lot of slow miles trying to de-fat.

Last Wednesday things blew up for me and my calf went KABOOOM! and it hurt to run down hill. Took a day off and eased back into things but I still don't trust it enough to handle the hills. We're not talking tweaking sore here, but PAIN.

Body and legs seem to be coming back together but I've still got some tenderness going downhill so I'm not got risk blowing things completely apart.

Live to fight another day....

Go ahead and transfer me to the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte, NC (11.17) with the same 2:55 goal.

Damn that sucks - I have not been able to run much faster than 7:30 pace without my hamstring barking since October. So I am just running a lot of slow miles trying to de-fat.

Yup. Hopefully I can still reap the rewards to the training cycle with some shorter races.

Had appointment with the ART Doc yesterday. Pretty much told me that I was an idiot for running that 20 through the city during rush hour. The only muscle that he noticed anything with was the one running along my shin bone. Down by my ankle, there was a lot of 'crap'.

Makes sense, those roads are narrow and have crazy horizontal slopes I usually don't run on.

Doc made the mistake of telling me that I couldn't really hurt it much within the normal realm of running. Of course, today I went and busted out a solid interval session. It started barking on the last mile so there's no way it'd hold up for a whole 26.2

Damn that sucks - I have not been able to run much faster than 7:30 pace without my hamstring barking since October. So I am just running a lot of slow miles trying to de-fat.

Hi all - I'm one of those runners who posts wanting to run sub 3:00 and then disappears into an abyss. Sorry about that. I've been keeping up but feel so far from being sub 3:00 for Grandma's in June that I was keeping quiet.

I'm on week #2 of being free of a 6 month high hamstring injury and did my first "real" marathon workout. 3 x 2 miles (pace started at 7:24, but on the final round got it down to avg 7:10ish). Sunday I ran a 20 mile run and was able to avg 8:08 pace without a problem. So you sayn' there's a chance? I'm racing the Human 8K Race next weekend to give me an idea of where I'm at.

TripleBock

posted: 3/15/2012 at 8:13 AM

Dopplebock here - Posting under my original RA handle.

53F - Calm @ 6:00am in WI ... March 15th ??? I have been running a lot - trying to de-fat. But the last few mornings make me feel good all day long - Nice easy 10 miles before work in perfect conditions.

Progress is good ~ I am still on track to be in sub 3 shape by April 21 @ Carmel marathon. Things that have to happen yet ~ 15# lost and 8 good speed workouts. 4 - 5x5 minutes @ 30 minute race pace and 4 - of something LAT related and I will be set. I will have to start those next week to get them in and useful for the race.